


Finally

by sweetenoughandfaraway (ihavelovedyoubeautifully)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, One-Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-03
Updated: 2013-01-03
Packaged: 2017-11-23 12:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/621912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ihavelovedyoubeautifully/pseuds/sweetenoughandfaraway
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam liked order and plans and pro & con lists, but the things he said around Zayn were never quite planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finally

The first time it happened, it was an accident. Or at least that’s what Liam told himself.

They were laying on Zayn’s bed together after a particularly brutal day of signings, and Liam was marveling at how Zayn’s hair was still perfect from his early morning styling, even though there hadn’t been a single moment in the day for him to check himself in a mirror. He didn’t even look tired. How could someone look so perfect and put-together all of the time? Zayn could be awake for 36 hours straight and still look this way. And Liam would never understand how that was possible, but he loved it anyway.

Liam was tired, and he knew he looked it. He wasn’t like Zayn in that sense. He knew that his hair was growing too long and had long ago slipped past the boundary of attractive bedhead into “Jesus, get a haircut.” But there was a reason he didn’t want to cut it, and the reason was lying right next to him. Unbeknownst to a lot of people, Zayn had a thing for touching Liam’s hair. Liam didn’t know why, and he’d never ask. But sometimes ( _only_ sometimes; Zayn was never one for predictability) when they were alone, Zayn’s slender fingers would reach out and tangle themselves into Liam’s hair. They could stay there for a few seconds, or a few minutes; it was never the same. Once he’d kept his hands there for an hour, gently and methodically stroking the tousled brown layers while he thought Liam was napping.

These moments had become something sacred to Liam, something he always looked forward to. Zayn’s touch was different from Harry’s and Louis’ and Niall’s; it carried something more meaningful, something rarer. It carried something that Liam couldn’t name, but knew he should very well cherish.

So when Zayn’s fingers slipped into his hair that day, and Liam’s body was tired to the very bone, the relaxation that always came with Zayn’s touch switched his brain off and a few words spilled from his mouth without his consent.

“I _love_ when you do that.”

It only took a few seconds for Liam’s stomach to turn to ice as he realized what he’d just said aloud, and his eyes abruptly snapped open to find Zayn staring at him. His fingers had stilled and a heavy silence descended upon them, a silence Liam felt absolutely suffocated by. There was something unreadable in Zayn’s expression, and the one thing Liam could say he actually _hated_ about Zayn was how aloof he could become in important moments.

But then his fingers went back to stroking through his hair as if they’d never stopped, and a funny smile Liam had never seen before played on Zayn’s lips as he murmured, “Good to know.”

The next morning, Liam woke up to find Zayn fast asleep next to him, his fingers still lazily entangled in his hair.

* * *

The second time it happened, Liam had it all planned out. Sort of.

This time they were on the couch at Liam’s, watching some stupid movie he’d already forgotten the name of. Their legs were entangled together in a mess of limbs, like always, and Liam was staring at Zayn, which was certainly nothing new.

Zayn was always beautiful; that couldn’t be denied. Liam had made a list of things he found beautiful in Zayn, an ever-expanding list that he tucked deep in the back of his mind for comfort in moments when Zayn wasn’t around. 

There was the way his dark eyes were so thoughtful and _deep_ that they seemed to look beyond your person, boring beneath the surface of your skin and seeing everything you’ve ever tried to hide. Sometimes Liam wondered if Zayn already knew all his secrets. Most times, he figured that he did.

Then there were his eyelashes, especially the way they looked when they were illuminated by sunlight—a sight that would take anyone’s breath away. Liam sometimes wished he could so easily kiss Zayn’s tan skin the way his eyelashes did whenever he blinked.

But his favorite thing, the one thing that had pushed its way to the highest spot on Liam’s List of Beautiful Zayn Things, was his mouth. Zayn’s mouth, never predictable but _always_ lovely. He had twenty different smiles (that Liam had counted, anyway), but there was a recent addition that had somehow become the smile that belonged only to Liam. It was that funny smirk he had seen for the first time on Zayn’s bed a few weeks ago, when Liam had spilled about just how much he appreciated Zayn’s hair-touching. He’d spent hours trying to pick it apart, but all he’d been able to conclude was that it was half amusement and half something else he still didn’t have a name for. He tried to classify it as “fondness,” but somehow the word didn’t feel strong enough.

And so, laying on the couch with Zayn, Liam’s eyes couldn’t tear themselves away from his mouth. In the beginning, when the List of Beautiful Zayn Things had barely even been constructed, Liam had balked at the idea of Zayn ever catching him staring. But Zayn was just so damn intuitive that Liam soon learned he’d never be sneaky enough. So this time, he wanted Zayn to catch him, and he had a line prepared for when he did.

It only took a few moments for him to finally cave and look over questioningly at Liam, one dark eyebrow raised in question. “Whaddya staring at there, Li?” he asked, smooth and cool as always.

“Did you know you’re kind of beautiful?” Liam asked just as smoothly, his lips tilting up into a smile as he met Zayn’s gaze and held it.

Okay, that wasn’t _exactly_ what he’d planned to say. The line he’d prepared in his head had been a little more casual, something safer that could also be taken as a joke, like “I’m looking at you because you’re pretty.”

But it seemed there was an off switch inside Liam’s brain that Zayn knew just how to operate, and control of his words around Zayn might as well be a thing of the past at this point.

A surprised burst of laughter bubbled from Zayn’s lips, but it was just as quickly silenced and replaced by a smile – _Liam’s_ smile. 

“Did you _really_ just call me beautiful, Payne?” he asked, his eyes sparkling with something that made Liam’s insides grow warm.

“Well, it’s more an observation, really,” Liam explained as casually as he could pretend to be, wondering if Zayn could hear his heart thumping madly against his chest.

“An observation, eh? Well. I’m flattered,” Zayn almost got away with sounding completely indifferent, but Liam caught the waver in his voice and he knew this was going somewhere.

Zayn soon tore his eyes away from Liam, looking down at his hands, which were both resting on Liam’s leg. He began drawing little circles on the fabric of Liam’s pants, and he had that furrowed expression that Liam had come to know as his “don’t bother me because I’m thinking” face.

Finally, he tilted his head up to look at Liam and there was the smile again. Liam’s smile, the one he got to hold and keep and call his own. “What if I told you I think you’re beautiful too?” Zayn asked, holding Liam’s gaze, his eyes sparkling with a challenge.

This was an important moment. Liam could feel it. But he could also sense that if he went too deep, if this went too far, they couldn’t turn back. It was too early. The moment wasn’t right, and Liam recognized that. And if Liam recognized it, so would Zayn. For once, Liam had control, and he knew just what to do.

“Well, I’d have to absolutely agree with you. I _am_ beautiful.” He then dramatically flipped his hair to the side in such a Harry-esque fashion that Zayn fell off the couch laughing at him. Liam laughed loudly at the sight and joined him on the floor, where they proceeded to practically roll over each other in a fit of giggles. 

After about twenty minutes of horseplay, when they had finally wrestled away from each other and were leaning against the couch trying to regain their breath, a moment came when they both turned their heads just to stare at each other. Liam let out a nervous giggle that made him flush, but Zayn just kept looking at him with a very intense, probing look. Then the corners of his mouth slowly tipped up, and there was Liam’s smile, familiar and breathtaking and so goddamn beautiful because it _belonged_ to him, and they both knew it.

“I like it when you say things like that,” Zayn said softly, not breaking eye contact.

“Say what?” Liam asked innocently, smiling because he was going to make Zayn say it.

Zayn grinned, clearly seeing through Liam’s innocent act, but answering him anyways because it was Zayn and nothing really fazed him. “I like it when you call me beautiful, Liam.” There was a short pause while he stared at the floor and Liam conducted a little “yay yay _yay_ ” melody in his head, and then Zayn looked back up at him with a mischievous spark in his eyes and added “Even though it’s mushy as fuck.”

“Mushy? Oh. Well. I thought I was being _poetic,_ ” Liam scoffed, raising a hand to his chest in mock offense.

Zayn’s eyes crinkled at the edges (yet another thing rather high up on the List) and he laughed once, shaking his head. “You’re a bit of a nutter, if you didn’t know.” 

Liam grinned at him and Zayn’s expression softened. After a few moments of comfortable silence just looking at each other, he added in a quiet voice, “But I s’pose I’m alright with it.”

Liam started a new list that night – The List of Beautiful Zayn Moments. And it was true, the first slot was filled the moment the list was created - but Liam knew there would come a day, very soon, that it would be replaced with something even better.

* * *

The third time it happened was spur of the moment, which had never been how Liam operated. 

Liam liked order and plans and pro & con lists, but being with Zayn made him shed all of those tendencies without a second thought. If he was with Zayn, he could be completely content with things being messy and totally unplanned. And sure, that was a little weird, but nothing having to do with Zayn had ever really been normal.

It was a Friday night, and it was their first weekend off in months. He was over at Zayn’s, and they had just spent three hours wrestling and playing video games and just doing the Liam and Zayn things they hadn’t been able to do in ages. And by the looks of it, their shenanigans must have tuckered Zayn out, because he was currently fast asleep under the coffee table.

Liam smiled (his Zayn smile, naturally) as he watched him, sleeping soundly with a little bit of drool pooling in the corner of his mouth. That should be gross, but nothing was gross about Zayn, not even his cigarettes (which Liam would never stop calling “cancer sticks,” because it was the truth and for some weird reason it always made Zayn smile).

He bent down to scoot the coffee table a bit off to the side so Zayn wouldn’t smack his head on it, and then he just stared for a while. It was lucky that Zayn was a heavy sleeper, or else he might have been able to sense Liam’s gaze (and boy would he look creepy).

To no surprise, Liam’s eyes found themselves fixated on Zayn’s mouth. He’d begun to notice that Zayn pouted his lips a little when he slept, which drove Liam absolutely crazy in the best way possible. He was doing it now, and Liam wanted nothing more than to lean down and place one gentle kiss onto that lovely mouth that had forever reserved a special smile just for him.

And well, it was funny how thoughts could flow so seamlessly into actions, because Liam’s lips were on Zayn’s before he could even think to lean forward.

Zayn’s lips tasted of cherry lip balm and just the slightest hint of ash. It was delicate and masculine all at the same time, the perfect depiction of Zayn, and Liam was too busy relishing the taste of it all on his lips to notice that Zayn was awake. 

He was jolted to his senses in a very good way, however, when suddenly he could feel himself being kissed back.

Zayn sighed one word into his mouth and then pulled at the neck of Liam’s T-shirt to bring him closer. A familiar hand anchored itself into his hair and the other placed itself softly on the side of his face, Zayn’s thumb lightly stroking across his cheekbone.

Liam was smiling against Zayn’s lips, but Zayn kept kissing him like it was as necessary to him as breathing.

He really couldn’t help it; as great (fucking _great_ ) this kiss was, Liam couldn’t stop smiling long enough to actually focus on kissing Zayn back.

Because the word Zayn had sighed into his mouth was

_“Finally.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! Name's Aubrey - I'm new here (not to fanfiction, just to AO3) and I'm still trying to get the lay of the land.
> 
> This is the first time I've ever written fanfiction based on real people - I always thought it was creepy to be honest, but then all of a sudden my fingers were hitting keys and now I'm writing about One Direction and having the time of my life. So there's that.
> 
> Have some comments/suggestions? Please leave them below, I love hearing from you!


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